Lorne Michaels

Creator

Lorne Michaels is an Emmy Award-winning producer and writer, best known as the creator and executive producer of "Saturday Night Live." "SNL" is the longest running, most Emmy-nominated, and highest-rated weekly late night television program in history, currently in its 40th season. Michaels is also executive producer of the Emmy-nominated "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" and "Late Night with Seth Meyers" on NBC, as well as IFC's Peabody Award-winning "Portlandia" and FOX's new fall comedy "Mulaney."

Michaels' previous television credits include: the Emmy-nominated "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon," the Golden Globe and Emmy-winning "30 Rock," "Up All Night," "The Kids in the Hall," "Night Music," "Late Night with Conan O'Brien," as well as specials with Lily Tomlin, Steve Martin, Paul Simon, The Rutles, Flip Wilson, The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys, Randy Newman, Neil Young and Simon and Garfunkel in Central Park. On Broadway, he produced and directed "Gilda Radner Live from New York" and produced the subsequent motion picture "Gilda Live."

Lorne Michaels' motion picture credits as a producer include "Mean Girls," starring Lindsay Lohan and written by Tina Fey, "Baby Mama," starring Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, and "MacGruber." Other films include "Wayne's World," "Tommy Boy," and "Three Amigos" (which he produced and co-wrote with Steve Martin and Randy Newman). His most recent film, "The Guilt Trip," starring Barbra Streisand and Seth Rogen was released in December 2012.

Michaels began his career in Toronto, where he attended the University of Toronto. He started as a writer and producer for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and starred in the comedy series "The Hart & Lorne Terrific Hour." In 1968, he moved to Los Angeles and worked as a writer for NBC's "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In." He left for New York in 1975 to begin "SNL." In 1979, Michaels founded his production company, Broadway Video.

Michaels has personally won 13 Emmys as a writer and producer of television. He was inducted into the Television Academy of Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame in 1999, and in 2004 he received the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. Michaels received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1999. In Canada, he was awarded the Governor General's Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement in 2006, and had previously been inducted into the Order of Canada in 2002. In 2008, he was named one of Time Magazine's "Time 100" – a list of the most influential people in the world. In 2013, Michaels received the Distinguished Collaborator Award by the Costume Designers Guild and also earned the rare honor of an individual Peabody Award.